98 Dodge Caravan Dash Light Blinking/Flashing

It’s kind of late to be posting this, almost 11 years that is :) but keep on reading and good thing will unveil slowly!!

My 98 Dodge Caravan, recently I had to take it’s battery out for some maintenance and after putting the battery back in when I started the car, weirdly enough, all my dashboards lights started flashing (the lights on the wiper and climate control buttons).

98 Dodge Caravan Dash Board

I was pretty sure this must be some issue related to “reset”. So I took it to show the guys at maintenance and they told me right away that I need to replace my battery with a new one, which seemed very illogical to be honest.

So I start searching for some sort of reset and surprisingly enough, I found one!!

Following the steps below, I was able to stop the light blinking/flashing on my Caravans dashboard:

Start the van.

Slide the temperature lever all the way to the left (full cold).

Turn the Mode Control to ‘panel’ (the one that sends air to your face only).

Turn the ‘blower switch’ to all the way to full.

Now go to the leftmost three buttons. Press and hold the top one (rear wiper on constant) and the bottom one (rear wiper washer fluid) until the lights come on solid then begin to flash, and then you can let go.

The AC will now calibrate. You will feel the air blow out of all the different zones at different intervals and see lights come on and go off. Then after a minute or two the top button you pressed will be slowly flashing. This means it has been completed.

Press the last flashing button and you are done.

Now that was fun to see it actually work and not to mention saving almost $200 on replacing the battery was a big reward too.

I was aware of resets in modern devices such as Xbox 360, PS3 or remotes that has these sort of hidden sequences that executes certain reset protocol but to find it in a 11 year old van was really surprising. I am pretty sure that this sequence still exists in the new caravan models, so if you are having similar sort of problems you may want to give this a try in newer models too.

Often, after doing these tests for the first time, the Cool Down Test fails, and the A/C and the Recirculation indicators flash simultaneously (though, just these two instead of the four.) Simply run the Cool Down Test independently by pressing simultaneously the A/C and the Wash Buttons. Hold for 5 seconds, and allow the test to run.
This may take more than a few runs to finally set. Mine worked when I ran the test as soon as I started the car the next time (after the car had cooled off completely overnight). When all lights go out except for the Rear Wiper, push the Rear Wiper to exit. Success!

Some have suggested turning the compessor off and running the car for 15 minutes previous to the Cool Down Test. This did not work for me. But it is true that if the compressor is cold (with condensation), the Cool down test will usually fail. Try, try again. If your A/C compressor is in good condition, it will eventually set. If nothing seems to work, your A/C might be have a problem.

WoW!– I think I would have sold my van before thinking of that one. Thank you so much.

However, I still have 2 out of the 6 lights still flashing. The lights that are now flashing are the snowflake, the recycle air, and the rear defrost does not seam to light up, but I can hear it clicking on and off.

Thank you, I followed your direction and it worked amazing; your intruction is very specific and direct. I read other instructions and confused with rear wiper and intermittent wiper pressed simmultaneously. They never mentioned a
wash button that need to be pressed.

Have had the flashing lights for 5 years and even the Chrysler service guy couldn’t help … although I am sure he could have fixed it for a few hundred dollars. I followed the steps here and it worked first time.
The interesting thing with this is that everything works … AC/Recirc/rear wipers, and the LED’s stop constantly flashing after 15 minutes of running.
Million thanks for this post.

Thank you so much….my daughters car battery died, I recharged it and looked like she’d just have to get used to the blinking lights. Thanks to your information, we were able to fix it….just like you said!
Thanks again!!

We replaced our battery months ago and it started blinking. We recently had a new engine put in and I thought for sure that would make it stop but it didn’t! The shop said it was a diagnostic tool and he believe it meant a module was going out. I was looking on here to figure out which module when I came across this. It worked!!! Thank you so much. (Ours is a 98 caravan as well)

You’re wrong; it’s never too late. It worked flawlessly. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. The family will be happy to have the AC back. Now if I could just figure out the intermittent up-shift problem….

Incredible! Our battery went dead in our 98 Dodge Caravan and when we charged it and restarted the van all those lights where blinking. I found this on the very first try and IT WORKED! My husband was amazed! You rock!!!!

Hello:
two lights still blinking the two right bottom I follow the steps to calibrate but after a few seconds the two left top buttons star blinking the left bottom 6 times and the left top 1
after 3 min I press the left top and the other two right bottoms star blinking again.
any suggestions please…
THANKS!!!!

My Recirc and AC lights were blinking after I changed the battery on my ’97 Dodge Caravan. I tried your steps but it seemed to work up until the last step. The top light had a slow blink. When I pushed the button, the original 2 lights came back on. Did I do something wrong?

I did try several times but it still does the same thing. I noticed the pic of the dashboard you have has single zone climate control and no rear air. My 98 has both. Do you know of any specifics about what to do with the rear air controls? Any help would be great!
Thanx

Fantastic! This worked perfectly on our 1998 Chrysler Town & Country minivan, which was experiencing the same problem.

The blinking started after some repairs at the local Goodyear garage. They claimed that it was a coincidence and had nothing to do with them. When I brought it back, they said they had ordered the proper part. But they never returned my calls. The obviously did not know and did not care what was going on. Furthermore, they apparently lied to me.

In any case, thanks very much for posting this procedure in such a clear manner.

All I Say is: You are a smart guy. Same thing happened to my caravan, and I was getting tired of the blinking, then I read your article, and did what you told me to do, and it works perfectly, thank you Sir.

That worked perfectly. Thanks so much for the quick fix. The lights blinking have been driving me nuts and I knew it was a reset because it happened right after the battery went dead. I went to the local dealership and they wanted to book me in for an appointment @ $95/hr.

Thanks a million! My 98 Dodge Caravan had exactly the same problem for two years and a half. After changing a dead battery. the dashboard lights kept blinking for about 20 minutes when started. I knew it’s a reset problem and would cost at least $200 to fix it from a Dodge dealer’s shop. I have consulted with many professionals or non-experts and tried many suggestions in vain. It bothered me all time. The problem is now being solved.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 1:51 amand is filed under Troubleshoot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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